The use of wireless communication devices to send and receive information has become increasingly prominent. For example, individuals may utilize communication networks for voice communications, research, entertainment, or for conducting critical business transactions. In addition to these human users, unmanned machines may also be configured to transmit data to other machines. For example, various appliances, toys, vehicles, and other machines could be configured to wirelessly transmit usage information and other data for collection in a database. Interested parties can then access and process the collected usage information from these machines in order to gain some perspective about their use. Likewise, updates and other information may be pushed to machines periodically in order to provide new data for the machine. However, such data transfers are not typically time-sensitive and a certain amount of delay in the transfer of the data is often acceptable.
As the number of unmanned machines that are configured to automatically transmit machine-to-machine traffic continues to rise, demand on the wireless communication network to service these request also increases. For example, there may be hundreds or thousands of machine-to-machine devices located in a single sector coverage area of a base station. However, such devices typically generate and transmit very small amounts of data infrequently, but registering these machines onto the network every time one of the machines requires a data service is very inefficient and consumes valuable network resources.
Overview
A method of operating a wireless access node to manage machine-to-machine data transmissions is disclosed. The method comprises allocating a plurality of machine-to-machine channels reserved for machine-to-machine communications. The method further comprises assigning individual quality of service levels to individual ones of the machine-to-machine channels per sector. The method further comprises wirelessly receiving machine-to-machine traffic on one of the machine-to-machine channels. The method further comprises determining a quality of service level for the machine-to-machine traffic based on the sector and the machine-to-machine channel over which the machine-to-machine traffic was received. The method further comprises transferring the machine-to-machine traffic for delivery to a machine-to-machine server based on the quality of service level for the machine-to-machine traffic.
A wireless access node to manage machine-to-machine data transmissions comprises a processing system, a wireless communication transceiver, and a communication transceiver. The processing system is configured to allocate a plurality of machine-to-machine channels reserved for machine-to-machine communications, and assign individual quality of service levels to individual ones of the machine-to-machine channels per sector. The wireless communication transceiver is configured to receive machine-to-machine traffic on one of the machine-to-machine channels. The processing system is configured to determine a quality of service level for the machine-to-machine traffic based on the sector and the machine-to-machine channel over which the machine-to-machine traffic was received. The communication transceiver is configured to transfer the machine-to-machine traffic for delivery to a machine-to-machine server based on the quality of service level for the machine-to-machine traffic.
A computer apparatus to manage machine-to-machine data transmissions comprises software instructions and at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing the software instructions. The software instructions are configured, when executed by a wireless access node, to direct the wireless access node to allocate a plurality of machine-to-machine channels reserved for machine-to-machine communications. The software instructions are further configured to direct the wireless access node to assign individual quality of service levels to individual ones of the machine-to-machine channels per sector. The software instructions are further configured to direct the wireless access node to wirelessly receive machine-to-machine traffic on one of the machine-to-machine channels. The software instructions are further configured to direct the wireless access node to determine a quality of service level for the machine-to-machine traffic based on the sector and the machine-to-machine channel over which the machine-to-machine traffic was received. The software instructions are further configured to direct the wireless access node to transfer the machine-to-machine traffic for delivery to a machine-to-machine server based on the quality of service level for the machine-to-machine traffic.